Jamie Oliver's Super Food Challenge Day #4

This is a really great midweek meal – quick to prepare, filling and packed with flavour. The portions are generous – we have plenty of leftovers. I felt full all evening and wonder if that’s down to the wholewheat pasta, to which I would quite happily switch for the health benefits. I really didn’t notice a difference in taste or texture from normal pasta (being half-Italian and a big pasta-phile, I had worried about that).

One big bonus with this dish: making the bay oil in the pestle and mortar gives you a brilliant bingo wing workout. It’s an all round winner!

I started the day with another portion of my tasty Bircher Muesli that I'd prepared the day before. I really like this recipe as you can prepare it in big batches for the week and then adjust the toppings each day for a bit of variety. I often find myself feeling quite sluggish around mid-morning but this really did keep me energised until lunch.

For lunch, I made the Grilled Corn and Quinoa Salad. I cooked the quinoa and corn the night before so that it was just a case of taking an extra 5 minutes in the morning to cut up the rest of the ingredients and throw them in a food tub. I had a flight to Zurich to catch in the evening so I made up two portions and ate one at the airport, which made me feel very self-rightous! I was worried that the avocado and mango might be a bit brown and mushy by dinner time but, thanks to the zingy lime dressing, everything was just as fresh, and much tastier than anything I could have bought on the go.

What I made:

Protein Loaf with yoghurt, banana and cinnamon

Moroccan Jam Jar Salad

What I thought:

I was sceptical about putting sweet items on this extremely savoury loaf (it tastes like chickpeas – yum), but it worked. Yoghurt is something I lean on heavily for breakfast usually, and it was nice to get that lovely cooling sensation without needing a whole bowl of the stuff.

Lunch was so pretty to look at, I really didn’t want to pour it out of the jar. It could have done with a slightly looser dressing, as the yoghurt went a little too firm overnight to properly toss the whole salad in, but it tasted great.

I failed on dinner. Failed spectacularly. A night at the theatre meant a night off from cooking, and I ended up in Covent Garden with a selection of sliders and a bowl of exceptional mac and cheese. Whoops. That said, it was nice for a splurge to feel like a real splurge.

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